Five years later, the number of students making the grade has dramatically increased while fewer kids are left back.

More kids are meeting stricter promotional standards based on performance on state reading and math exams.

Doomsday predictions of a massive rise in students repeating a grade or falling further behind have not materialized.

For example, the number of kids who had to repeat third grade dropped last year to 1.6 percent compared to 4.4 percent the first year the new policy was in effect.

Chancellor Joel Klein said the promotion policy has been the linchpin of a school system transformed under mayoral control.

“We decided to educate a child before we promoted him rather than promote him before we educated him,” Klein said.

Parents approve of the promotional policy.

“Students should earn their grades. There’s no social promotion in the job market,” said Michael Edwards, whose son, Michael Jr., is a first-grader at Harlem Success Academy.

The policy created a new urgency, staffers said.

Kevin Nesbitt, a drug-prevention counselor at PS 197 in Harlem, said: “It’s been a plus so far. It’s helped the students focus. Students don’t want the stigma of being held back.”

The policy requires students to score at least a Level 2 on scale of 1 to 4 on the math and reading exams to move to the next grade.

Students can appeal and take do-over tests during summer school.

A Department of Education analysis claims that the policy benefits kids who are held back. The study showed youngsters who repeated a grade did better than students who were promoted after summer school or on appeal.

The Department of Education has invested in intervention programs. They include using the additional 150 minutes a week added to the teachers-union contract for small-group instruction and a Summer Success Academy. Some schools offer weekend test prep.

But principals in middle and high schools complain that many students who were promoted in elementary schools still come unprepared.

“The city still has a lot of work to do,” said Seth Andrew, head of Democracy Prep Charter School in Harlem, which covers grades 6 to 12. “About 50 percent of the kids who come to us from Harlem elementary schools need significant remediation.”